Ryan Spaeder

Thursday

Ryan Spaeder

Baseball may be trapped in a two-party system

Hope springs eternal. With Opening Day 2025 under our belts, however, you cannot shake the feeling that America’s pastime, like its politics, is a two-party system. The Los Angeles Dodgers enter the season as the incumbent World Series champions, having triumphed over the New York Yankees last October. Who expects this year to be much different? Here is a quick rundown of the Dodgers offseason coup: two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and international phenomenon Roki Sasaki bolster an already stellar rotation featuring Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tony Gonsolin. And just in case that’s not enough, their best offseason pitching acquisition is reigning MVP Shohei Ohtani, fresh from becoming the first player in history to slug fifty home runs and steal fifty bases.

baseball

Monday

Ryan Spaeder

The new worst team in baseball

To this day, the exact origin of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 is unknown. It may be easy to blame poor old Mrs. O’Leary, though the conspiracy-minded out there speculate that the blaze might have been a deliberately planned event orchestrated by powerful interests to reshape the city for profit and control. Whether or not these theories hold water, the fire offered a convenient opportunity to rebuild the city with stricter building codes and modern brick and steel structures that allowed the city’s elite to seize prime real estate, drive up property values and transform Chicago into a modern hub of wealth and innovation. It has taken all of 153 years, but the fire has crossed the South Branch of the Chicago River and reached West 35th Street.

Sox